How did Puritanism relate to literature?

1 Answer

There are many opinions about this question. Some would argue that American literature simply grew out of changing historical factors that had little or nothing to do with the religious questioning done by the Puritans. Others argue that the Puritans practice of examining their lives for acts of good and evil naturally shifted into creative writing and imaginative expressions. Still, the question becomes whether Puritan writing should be seen as simply historic documentation, or does their writing have literary merit??? Puritans wrote diaries in which they would often find spiritual meaning in what might be considered simple coincidences.